MHS GENESIS goes live at CRDAMC

Photo By Rodney Jackson | Sgt. Bruce Mayo, medical laboratory technician, CRDAMC, and Tech. Sgt. Melissa Lambert, medical laboratory technician, from Nellis Air Force Base input laboratory results into the new MHS GENESIS system during the first day of the launch of the new system at Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center 19 March. (U.S. Army photo by Rodney Jackson, CRDAMC Public Affairs)  

FORT HOOD, TX, UNITED STATES

03.21.2022

Story by Rodney Jackson 

Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center

Fort Hood, Texas – The Department of Defense’s new electronic health record (EHR), MHS GENESIS, launched here at Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center March 19.
The new health record will deliver data to healthcare teams wherever patients receive treatment-whether it is at a medical facility within the Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs or the U.S. Coast Guard.
“GENESIS is putting every system together, and staff members will not have to switch between multiple programs, which will make it easy for hospital staff to serve our beneficiaries better,” said April Arrington, clinical workflow analyst, CRDAMC .
Staff members have trained at CRDAMC over the past year and around the clock in day and night shift sessions, attending instructor led trainings, online classes, and scenario based trainings.
CRDAMC staff and a team of super user personnel dubbed ‘pay it forward’ from other medical treatment facilities, that are subject matter experts trained to support workflows and functionality in their areas, and have already launched the system at their facilities, began working in every department throughout the main hospital and outlying clinics to incorporate the new system.
The goal of the pay it forward team is to provide tips, practices and the different processes learned, established, and used by their specific departments at their medical treatment facilities.
During the initial start-up of the program, which began in the early hours of the day and during the computer downtime for routine system backup, technicians put in the workload results manually.
In the laboratory at the hospital, beneficiary laboratory order results were uploaded into the system for doctor and staff to review.
Cpl. Michael Quinn, medical laboratory technician CRDAMC, began his normal shift by inputting those order results like the complete blood cell count, differentiation of white blood cell count, and blood coagulation from the hematology side of the laboratory.
Tech. Sgt. Melissa Lambert, medical laboratory technician, from Nellis Air Force Base and part of the pay it forward team, joined the CRDAMC laboratory staff to help them with lessons learned for her medical treatment facilities that launched the system in September 2020.
The training wasn’t really tailored to each Department of Defense medical treatment facility, it’s overall GENESIS system training commented Lambert. The trainers aren’t laboratory technicians so you don’t really learn all of the exact and specific details for each department and that’s where the pay it forward teams are a big help, she went on to say.
The system is designed for operation with end users and super users. End users incorporate beneficiary information into the system and make sure computer generated information is correct. Super users have additional training and access to additional tools to assist end users and resolving issues. They are also responsible for reporting end user problems that they cannot resolve to the command center.
The hospital also setup a command center as a central control point to provide key information to personnel in all main hospital and outlying areas, to help support staff. The center holds scheduled meetings throughout the day to take on problems that the teams are having, answer questions, provide tips and workflow instructions, and to deploy support staff throughout the facilities.
CRDAMC’s team of healthcare workers is expecting delays in patient services, but continues to make its beneficiaries the primary focus throughout the process of incorporating the new system.
Appointment availability from March through June may be affected, and appointment times may increase as our hospital staff adjusts to new technology and workflows. The staff appreciates beneficiary patience and understanding as they integrate the system to provide top-notch care. Additional resources for health care are available during this time. Visit the CRDAMC social media sites and website for updates.
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• Date Taken: 03.21.2022
• Date Posted: 03.21.2022 11:53
• Story ID: 416838
• Location: FORT HOOD, TX, US